Calculations Introduction and References

Contents

Starting Out

Calculations may seem intimidating, but there is a very real and easy way to start getting into them. While being swamped with information may seem overwhelming, taking things piece-by-piece will go miles to easing your newfound endeavor. Though this is a hefty read, it is designed for an individual with almost no mathematical background to learn how to calc from scratch, with most of the resources needed all in one place.

In order to make a calculation, you must first determine what you want to calculate. Once you have a feat in mind, you must begin gaining the necessary information to the calc. Whatever you will need will vary from calc to calc, but keep this in mind: All calculations need to start with at least one value! Finding that value is the first step to completing any calculation. Do not feel like a calculation is impossible due to the amount of variables. After you find one value, it may be much easier to determine the next. I will now go over what needs to be done in order to make a calculation in a very rough outline, from start to finish.

Speed Calcs

Basic Speed Calc

1. For speed, you need two things: Distance and Time. You will need to obtain both of these in order to determine a speed, but focus on one of these two first.

2. In order to determine time frame, look to the media itself. If the feat is in video format, you can easily determine exactly how long it takes for the feat to be completed. For videos, determining what Frames per second the video runs at and counting the frames can be an extremely accurate way to dictate time. The tool Watchframebyframe can help with this process. Looking at the timestamp from feat start to feat end can be acceptable as well for longer feats. If the media is not video based, see if there is any indication of a time. Does a character speak of how long it took? If so use this. If not and there is no other way to determine speed, you will need to assume a time frame. If it was a very quick feat, assume 1 second. If it was longer, 1 minute to upwards to 10 minutes can work. Go with whatever makes the most sense in the context of the feat. Once you have this time, convert whatever value you have into seconds.

Warning! Beware of Cinematic timing. For more information on this, feel free to see our Cinematic Time page.

3. Now that you have time frame, you need a distance. This can be gathered a variety of ways. If a something within the feat gives you a distance (e.g. Flash stating he just ran around the city), take this and convert whatever distance covered into meters; this conversion to meters applies for pixel scaling and angsizing. Whatever your result is, it must be in meters, The next option is pixel scaling, which will be most commonly used. In order to pixel scale, you will need a program capable of both capturing images and altering them. Two separate programs can be used to achieve this, or a single program if applicable. Gyazo and Paint.net can be used for image capture and alteration, respectively. If you are capturing a YouTube video, try to include the full screen for reference, which is 854x480 pixels when capturing with Gyazo. Once you are able to begin pixel scaling, bring up the full image and begin working. If the distance you want to measure isn't easily found, put it into perspective with another object/character in the shot. You will not always be graced with knowing the distance or height of what you want, so get creative. If there is an adult man in the shot, measure him in pixels and take the average height for men, which is approximately 177 centimeters, and find out how many centimeters/meters each pixel is worth. Once you have this, you can work from there. Sometimes you may need to scale an object to something of known height (X) to an unknown height object (Y) and apply the now found object (Y) height to a new object (Z) that wasn't previously scale-able, due to the lack of a known distance object on screen. Once you have determined how many meters/centimeters a pixel is worth, measure the distance in question to determine the real distance covered. To angsize, follow the guide on our Calculation Guide page. Remember to convert to meters if you were using any other measurement.

Note! If the distance is not perfectly angled (not 0, 90, 180, 270, or 360 degrees), you will need to take the height and length, originating for the starting position, and find the hypotenuse to get an accurate distance. Feel free to use Google's hypotenuse calculator or input the formula yourself (c=a^2+b^2, where a^2+b^2 is under the square root symbol). If the distance can be determined by a 90 degree angle, do so to save yourself the time. Paint.net has a built-in angular indicator for the line function.

4. With both distance and time, divide distance covered in meters by time in seconds. S= D/T when S is speed in meters per second, D is distance in meters, and T is time in seconds. This is your result and the calculation is completed!

Speed Calc by Comparison

Oftentimes a distance will not be ascertainable, or it will not be accurate compared to what truly happened. Media oftentimes depicts extremely fast characters moving at moderate speeds for the audience's enjoyment; no one wants a fight to end in half a second. In order to determine the speed of such characters, you will need to compare the speed of a known object to that of the unknown. This is primarily done for bullet and lightning dodges.

1. Determine the true speed of the known object. If there is an arrow fired at the character, determine the speed of the arrow. For example, the average speed of a compound bow arrow is about 100 m/s. If you find a speed that isn't in meters per second, covert it to meters per second. If a gun was used, determine what gun it is and the speed of the gun. Google is your friend! Try to use the most scientifically based and accurate source as possible. Remember, if the fact you are looking up isn't common knowledge, you NEED to cite your sources. To put something as a link in source editor, use one backet containing the link and words; use two for in-wiki articles/sources (e.g. [.[Amon (StarCraft)]] without the period in between the brackets; (https://www.outdoorlife.com/features/chasing-speed-fastest-compound-bow/ 100 m/s) replacing the parenthesis with a single bracket). For lightning this Wiki uses 4.4x10^5 meters per second as the average lightning speed. Once you have your speed, it is time to compare it to the unknown speed object/character.

2. Determine the distance the known object moved. Follow the previous Step 3 of pixel scaling to do this. Once you have the distance for the known object, you need to determine how "fast" it was moving.

3. Find a time frame for the known object. Follow the previous Step 2 in order to do this. Once you have this you can determine the "speed" of your known object.

4. Divide distance over time as done in the previous Step 4. You will now have the speed at which the object appeared to move at, as well as the true speed of the object. Remember, you must get both of these in meters per second. For lightning, take the value of 4.4x10^5 and divide it by the amount you found. This is your multiplier for the unknown character's speed. For example, if the lightning appears to be moving at 63.8349 m/s, you know the scene is moving at 6892.781x faster than normal. For more info see thesecalcs.

Warning! Are you sure the "lightning" you're using is true lightning? Make sure to check the Lightning Dodging Feats page to be sure.

5. Repeat the current Steps 2 to 4 for the unknown object's speed. Once you have that speed you can finish the calc.

There are more advanced ways to find Speed, such as Rotational speed, but most of the less obvious forms of calcing can be learned as you progress.

Attack Potency Calculations

AP can be used to get a variety of stats. For example, AP can lead to finding Durability, Striking Strength, and even uses what you would need to find Lifting Strength, so long as the method you are using needs Mass. With that said, AP is far more variable and can be harder to find than speed. Common forms of AP can usually be seen in Destruction, Explosions, and Kinetic Energy, although there are many more ways to get AP than these (Latent Heat, Gravitational Binding Energy, and more). First you need to determine which method to use before proceeding. Did something get destroyed, cracked, broken, or even vaporized? Use Destruction. If an explosion was set off, use Explosions. If something moved at high speeds, use Kinetic Energy.

Warning! If using Kinetic Energy, do NOT Calc Stack! Calc Stacking occurs when you use a value as determined by another calculation from another scene and use it on your calc (e.g. Using another calc's Speed as a value for your Kinetic Energy).

While this will not be as in-depth as the Speed section, this will briefly overlook what needs to be done in order to find AP results for these three common methods.

Destruction

1. For Destruction, you need to determine volume in cubic centimeters. First, choose the most accurate formula for the object destroyed. See here for geometric formulas.

2. Next, you need to measure the object with either pixel scaling, as shown in the first Step 3, or a statement. Find all the values needed for your formula to be completed. For cubes and spheres, all you will need is a single value. For others you will need more. Remember, if you can't find the object's real size, get creative and look for objects around your target to get a comparison to use. For destruction volume, measure in centimeters.

3. Now that you have the inputs for the formula in centimeters, input in the values in order to get your result in cubic centimeters.

4. Apply this to one of our destruction values found on the Calculations page. Do not try to force an increase in AP by using a higher value; be honest and try to select the most accurate value possible. You now have AP in joules; calculation completed!

Note! Sometimes a mountain/island destruction feat isn't all it seems to be. This is where calculations shine! See this blog for more details.

Explosions 1

1. For explosions, all you will need is radius. Get this value in any way you can, and enter the radius into this calculator found on our Calculations page to get a result in megatons. Change the megaton yield until your radius value appears. Use the airburst radius (either widespread destruction or near-total fatalities) as your radius.

2. Now take the value you found and divide it by 2. Calculation completed!

Explosions 2

You also have the ability to manually calculate the yield with a formula. This is a bit trickier, but it will help accuracy. If you are interested in using this formula, please view the section below under "Near Total Fatalities". See this blog for more information.

Kinetic Energy

Before you start any Kinetic Energy feat, make sure to read over the Kinetic Energy Feats page to brush up on what is and isn't usable for Kinetic Energy.

1. Kinetic Energy, or KE, is the energy an object holds while moving. The formula is KE = 0.5xMxV^2, where KE is Kinetic Energy in joules, M is mass in kilograms, and V is speed in meters per second. As it would appear, you need to find speed and mass. Find mass. To do this, measure the volume of the object as listed in the Destruction Steps 1 and 2. Sometimes the mass will already be known, such as the mass of a car or human. If this is available to you, use this mass.

2. Now find the density of what is moving. Densities vary by object, so make sure you cite where you have found this density unless it is common knowledge. For example, the density of clouds is 1.003 kg per cubic meter.

Warning! The value I just gave is in cubic meters. Make sure you use your value appropriately or suffer vastly skewed results.

3. Once you have density and volume, multiply the values to get mass. If everything was done properly, the value you have should now be the mass of the object being moved/moving in kilograms.

4. Obtain speed. See Speed Calcs above for more information on how to obtain speed.

5. Input your obtained speed value in meters per second and your obtained mass value in kilograms. When put into the formula, the result will be your energy in joules. Calculation completed!

Other

There are many other ways to calculate AP, but three notable others are Mass-Energy Conversion, Shearing Force, and Gravitational Binding Energy. The former may only be used if such a method is explicitly stated. If this type of conversion is stated, however, you can use the formula E=Mc^2, where E is energy in joules, M is mass in kilograms, and c is the speed of light in meters per second. Shearing Force is what is used for cutting or slicing feats. If you are interested when and how to perform such feats, these blogs will be useful. Gravitational Binding Energy is the energy needed to bind a planet together, as the name implies, if the planet is destroyed, you will be able to use this formula as a minimum, as its GBE has been overcome. This calculator can find GBE for you, as long as you can provide the values.

Practicing and Tips

You can either try to dive headfirst into original calculations of your own, or you can try to calculate an already accepted calculation from a Calculation Group member without looking at how they did it or the results in order to test your skills! If you choose to do this, try to work through the feat and calculate it. If you choose the same option that the original user did, you can see what their results were. If you got the same or a close result, you know you are on the right track. If your version is wildly different, try to find out what went wrong or what value changed the result.

Practicing can be a vital tool to hone your calcing skills before submitting a formatted blog post to get an original calculation evaluated. There are plenty of calculations out there, so you can practice nearly anything you wish before getting into making official, accepted calculations. Also, if you are having trouble in deciding where to go with a calculation, existing calculations can help you with unusual formulas or applications of anything mentioned here or elsewhere.

Common Calculation Examples

If you still feel unsure about how to go about starting a calculation, feel free to take a look at this calculations to try to brush up on how it's done! All below calculations are accepted by a Calculation Group member.

Units and Values

This section will give a brief overview of what commonly used values are, and what they mean and are used for.

Distance:

Centimeter: 1/100th of a meter.

Inch: A small imperial measurement. Equal to 2.54 centimeters.

Meter: A standard measurement of distance. Equal to 3.28 feet.

Kilometer: 1000 meters.

Mile: A large imperial measurement. Equal to 1.61 kilometers or 5280 feet.

Light Year: The distance light will travel in one year. Equal to 9.46x10^15 meters, 9.46x10^12 kilometers, or 5.879x10^12 miles.

Note! Despite the name "light year", this is not a measurement of time. It is purely a measurement of distance. This value is found by taking the speed of light, 299,792,458 meters per second, and multiplying by the number of seconds in a year (31,536,000 seconds).

Energy:

Erg: A very small unit of energy measurement. Equal to 10^-7 joules.

Joule: The SI unit for work or energy.

Watt: Persistent energy measurement. Equal to 1 joule per second, and is equal to a joule in most scenarios.

Ton of TNT: Energy equal to the explosive release of 1 metric ton of TNT. Equal to 4.184x10^9 joules.

FOE: Energy equal to that of a standard supernova. Equal to 10^44 joules.

Formatting an Official Calculation

To make an official, acceptable calculation, make sure to put it in your Blog post. Provide it with a relevant title, feat description, context, and any media used in the calculation (if you uses a manga panel, provide the panel; if you pixel scaled a picture or image, profile the edited picture). Explain your work; attempt to make it as easy as possible to read and understand. Preferably, someone who has no experience with calculations should know what you are doing and why you are doing it.

If you feel so inclined you can organize the post further by dividing up the post with two equals signs (==insert section here==) that will divide the post into manageable and quickly comprehensible chunks, and use three apostrophes (insert important text here) to bold important information, such as significant values, formulas, and results.

Once you are done, end the blog post by giving the found values as well as the result in an energy rating/speed as well as our corresponding ratings (e.g. 7.369x10^13 joules, 7-C, Town level). Now upload it to your Blog and submit a link to it to the Official Calculation Evaluation Thread. Make sure to follow the Evaluation Format when making this post!

Notes

If there exist several calculations for a specific feat that have all been evaluated and accepted, but give conflicting results, the matter of which one that is most reliable should be first be discussed in the calc group forum by the calc group members before any changes are applied to the relevant character profiles. The calculation that is finally accepted should then be added to the related verse page calculation section, and the rejected versions removed.